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<td NOWRAP class="Header">Mailing list management and archiving</td>
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<td VALIGN=TOP class="PlainText"><a href="#aboutmail">About project mailing
lists</a>
<br><a href="#mailfeatures">Mailing list features</a>
<br><a href="#mailarchives">Mailing list archives</a>
<br><a href="#mailadmin">Mailing list administration</a>
<p><span class="InputHeader"><a NAME="aboutmail"></a>About project mailing
lists</span>
<p>Mailing lists provide a way for developers on a project to communicate
with one another and to receive notifications of project events. In general,
the way mailing lists work depends upon the type of project:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>
Open source project mailings lists are open to any subscriber, although
project owners can choose to limit who may subscribe and post to certain
lists.</li>

<li>
Proprietary project mailing lists are always private, that is, limited
only to approved subscribers who are usually project members.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
In either case, all project mailing lists are created with <a href="http://anzu.tigris.org/">anzu</a>,
an open source mail alias and list management extension of qmail simple
mail transfer protocol (smtp). Anzu supports multiple domains, enabling
each project to define and manage its own unique set of mailing lists for
the project domain.&nbsp;
<p>Every standard development project is created with the following set
of default lists:&nbsp;
<blockquote>
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="InputHeader">dev@PROJECTNAME.domain.com</span>&nbsp;</dt>

<dd>
The main list for developers to discuss specific project development issues
and requirements for version control in the project.</dd>

<dt>
<span class="InputHeader">cvs@PROJECTNAME.domain.com</span>&nbsp;</dt>

<dd>
Automated notifications of file version control changes and discussion
of those changes.</dd>

<dt>
<span class="InputHeader">announce@PROJECTNAME.domain.com</span>&nbsp;</dt>

<dd>
Announcements of new releases and other major project events.</dd>

<dt>
<span class="InputHeader">issues@PROJECTNAME@domain.com</span>&nbsp;</dt>

<dd>
Automated notifications and discussions of the project's reported issues
(defects, enhancements, features, tasks, and patches) and changes made
to issues, such as reassignment, comments, or resolution.</dd>

<dt>
<span class="InputHeader">users@PROJECTNAME.domain.com</span>&nbsp;</dt>

<dd>
A more general discussion list for the project's end users.&nbsp;</dd>
</dl>
</blockquote>
Discussion-only projects are set up with one mailing list initially.&nbsp;
<p>Default lists for each project are "top-level" mailing lists. If traffic
relating to a particular module or component becomes too high for a particular
top-level list, the project owner can create a separate mailing list to
splinter off the discussion.&nbsp;
<p>Most lists also have a corresponding "digest" version -- subscribers
to the digest list receive a single message per day with all of that day's
postings.&nbsp;
<p><span class="InputHeader"><a NAME="mailfeatures"></a>Mailing list features</span>
<p>The default, customary mailing list features are:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>
list subscribe/unsubscribe&nbsp;</li>

<li>
digest subscribe/unsubscribe&nbsp;</li>

<li>
post a message&nbsp;</li>

<li>
get help&nbsp;</li>

<li>
view the archive&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
These generic list options are generated for every project mailing list.
Project owners can modify these default mailing lists, add new lists, delete
unnecessary lists, add and remove subscribers, add and remove moderators,
and set other mailing list parameters. <a href="#mailadmin">See mailing
list administration</a>.&nbsp;
<p>For instructions on using the mailing lists for a particular project,
first click on the name of the project at left, then select "Mailing List"
in the Project Resources tool bar.&nbsp;
<blockquote><span class="InputHeader">Subscribing</span>
<br>To subscribe to a list named LIST for a project named PROJ, send a
blank email message to:
<br><b>LIST-subscribe@PROJ.domain.xxx</b>
<br>For example, to subscribe to the dev mailing list for a project's platform
component, send email to
<br><b>dev-subscribe@platform.PROJ.domain.xxx</b>
<p><span class="InputHeader">Unsubscribing</span>
<br>To unsubscribe from a list named LIST for a project named PROJ, send
a blank email message to:
<br><b>LISTNAME-unsubscribe@PROJ.domain.xxx</b>
<br>For example, to unsubscribe from the dev mailing list in project platform,
send email to
<br><b>dev-unsubscribe@platform.PROJ.domain.xxx</b>
<p><span class="InputHeader">Mailing list digests</span>
<br>If you find that you are getting too many email messages from a given
list, you can sign up for a daily digest of messages instead.&nbsp;
<br>To subscribe, send a message to <b>LIST-digest-subscribe@PROJ.domain.xxx</b>
<br>To unsubscribe, send a message to <b>LIST-digest-unsubscribe@PROJ.domain.xxx</b>
<p><span class="InputHeader">Posting a Message</span>
<br>To post a message to a list named LIST for a project named PROJ, send
your message to:
<br><b>LISTNAME@PROJ.domain.xxx</b>
<br>For example, to post a message to the dev mailing list in project platform,
send email to
<br><b>dev@platform.PROJ.domain.xxx</b>
<p><span class="InputHeader">Getting Help</span>
<br>To get an automated help message for a list named LIST for a project
named PROJ, send a blank email message to:
<br><b>LIST-help@PROJ.domain.xxx</b>
<br>For example, for the dev mailing list in project platform, send email
to
<br><b>dev-help@platform.PROJ.domain.xxx</b>
<p>To communicate with the list moderator, send an email message to:
<br><b>LIST-owner@PROJ.domain.xxx</b></blockquote>
<span class="InputHeader"><a NAME="mailarchives"></a>Mailing list archives</span>
<p>Project/component mailing list archiving is handled by <a href="http://eyebrowse.tigris.org/">eyebrowse</a>,
a brand new open source tool that stores and indexes list messages, providing
multiple options for browsing, reading, and searching mailing list archives
via a web browser. Beyond storing messages, eyebrowse adds a database,
and text indexing engine to handle rapid message search and retrieval.&nbsp;
<p><b><i>To view archives for a mailing list</i></b>, first click on the
project in the list, then select the "Mailing List" option in the Project
Resources tool bar to see a list of all mailing lists for that project.
Click on the <i>View Archive</i> link next to the list you want to view.&nbsp;
<p>The default view for browsing mailing list archives is by date summary.
Other summary views available are: by author, by subject, and by thread.
You can also do text string searches of archived messages using simple
Boolean operators.&nbsp;
<p><span class="InputHeader"><a NAME="mailadmin"></a>Mailing list administration</span>
<p>Project owners customize project mailing lists in the Mailing List Edit
screen, accessed by clicking the <i>Project Edit</i> link on the Project
Home page. Mailing list links at the bottom of the page display an edit
screen for each list.&nbsp;
<p>Project owners establish mailing list management policies by configuring
two important aspects of project mailing lists:&nbsp;
<dl>
<dt>
<b>Subscription moderation</b>&nbsp;</dt>

<dd>
Subscriptions to each mailing list can either be open or on an approval
basis. Subscriptions to proprietary project mailing lists are moderated
by default because these lists are always private. Open source project
owners can specify moderated subscriptions for certain mailing lists if
desired.</dd>

<dt>
<b>Posting policy</b>&nbsp;</dt>

<dd>
Mailing lists can be configured to handle message posts at three different
levels:&nbsp;</dd>

<ul>
<li>
"<b>Discuss</b>" allows subscribers to post, and moderates posts (requires
approval) from others.&nbsp;</li>

<li>
"<b>Announce</b>" moderates <i>all</i> posts.&nbsp;</li>

<li>
"<b>Automated-notification</b>" allows anyone to post messages without
moderation.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
</dl>
As part of the configuration options for all lists, a footer in every message
with subscribe/unsubscribe instructions can be turned on or off.&nbsp;<!--
	<P>Other pre-set mailing list features include:
<ul>
<li>Indexing 
<li>Archiving 
<li>List digest setup
*** <li>No archive guards, enabling any user to retrieve archived list messages in the case of open mailing lists.
*** <li>Public          = true (the list will respond to admin commands like
                        subscribe)

*** <li>request_address = true (makes life easier for people who are used to majordomo)
*** <li>Remote administration, allowing list moderators to subscribe people to the list via e-mail  (other useful
things***)
</ul>

	<p>Discussion lists include two addition features when the posting policy is set for either "announce" or
"automated-notification":

<ul>
***<li>Message "extras" are disallowed, stripping messages of certain mime types.
***<li>Posted message size restrictions requiring messages to be a minimum of 2 bytes and a maximum of 400 kb. This
restriction is not applied to the other types of mailing lists by default but can be set up through domain level
administration.
</ul>
--></td>
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